I have had this film on "back up" for a long time now. I would look through my queue of films to watch / review and this one was always staring back at me but I just skipped past it because I am not really a fan of superhero films. I don't think I even watched Avengers: Age of Ultron.

I think i delayed watching this movie because there are so many characters in it but I was surprised to find out that this is actually part of the movie's great strength - we don't have to focus on any one character for too long. Of course the special effects are awesome, we all believe that is going to be the case when 400 million is spent on a movie. The thing that really won me over this time around is that I think I have just met my favorite villain of all time.

Without revealing too much of the story I just want to say that I was delighted to have a "bad guy" who is not just after personal gain and power. He isn't doing what he does just for the sake of conquest, which all too frequently seems to be the motivation behind most super-villains. I thought that his calm demeanor and the way that he seems to genuinely respect all of his opponents (for the most part) was actually a really cool way of presenting him. He is played by Josh Brolin but I can't be the only person that thought it looked and sounded like Ron Pearlman.

There are just a ton of stars and superheros in this movie, so this is a dream come true for comic book fans for sure. I was just really pleased that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was not in this one. I was always kind of annoyed by his character. Maybe he died in the last one - i don't know. I don't follow it well enough to really care.

I would say that only performance I didn't like was Mark Ruffalo's, which was a surprise to me since out of all the actors in this thing I believe he is likely the most talented. I suppose it is difficult to be the Hulk and that is why there has been so many of them.

Anyway, this movie was great fun and you don't need to be a fan of superhero movies to enjoy it. I am not a fan (outside of Batman) so there's proof for you right there. I reckon this film was good enough for me to watch it again someday.

So this comes highly recommended by me. It's entertaining, keeps the comic relief coming but not overly so, and has a totally different overall vibe than you expect - especially the ending.